“Yeah?”
She looked at his mouth again and nodded. “Yeah.”
Okay, this was suddenly very…not joking. There was a tension in the air that he didn’t understand completely. But he didn’t hate it. It felt like anticipation. And temptation. And like September was very far away.
Finally, Cori cleared her throat and straightened, propping her hip against the counter. “Can I try to teach this stuff to Ava? Or is that against the terms of the trust?”
Yeah, it was better to stop talking about tempting things he couldn’t, or shouldn’t, have. Like chocolate toffee pecan pie. And his fake girlfriend’s sister. Or chocolate toffee pecan pie on his fake girlfriend’s sister.
He nodded. “I think you can. If you’re just instructing. As long as Ava’s there and actually doing it.”
He couldn’t see how that was an exact violation. Just like Cori kissing him at the front door wasn’t a direct violation of anything. He was still going to make sure Ava got away from work and had a good time and Cori wasn’t dating him. She was just making him want to date her more than he’d ever wanted to date anyone.
Hell, he’d never really wanted to date anyone at all. It was just kind of what happened when you lived in a small town and had known the women you slept with since birth. Fucking around in Bliss turned into shooting pool at the bar, going to movies, and the occasional backyard barbecue with their families—who he’d also known since birth—for the few weeks that the fucking around was occurring. Even when everyone, even their families, knew that it was nothing serious, there was still an underlying expectation of making it seem like it was more than casual sex. And hell, he liked movies and barbecues. No harm, no foul.
But he couldn’t help but wonder how going to the movies with Cori would be. It would be…different. Somehow. It would be more. Of something. It would be better.
He was so fucked.
“But I should definitely start with blueberry. And maybe pecan. Those are traditional pies. Things people would expect when they came into a pie shop, right?”
Evan felt his brows pull together. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do some of the other ideas.”
“Really?”
“Definitely.”
She tipped her head, chewing her bottom lip for a moment. “Are you a good judge of when things are over-the-top?”
He almost laughed. Because that was a really good question. “Maybe not,” he said honestly.
She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Me either.” She paused a moment, then said, “When I was fifteen, my dad invited me and my sisters to his birthday party for the first time.”
Evan didn’t know where this was going, but he felt a sudden need to hear this story. They’d already established the fact that the Rudy he’d known was not the father Cori had known. And he wanted to know more. About both Rudy and Cori in the past. He pushed his plate back and folded his arms on top of the breakfast bar, giving her his full attention.
“My dad threw these really big, fancy parties for his birthday and invited all of his big rich friends. It was always in some posh place with tons of food and drink and music—a huge gala.”
Evan just nodded.
“But we were never invited. We were just little girls and he didn’t want to have us underfoot. Which was fine. I didn’t even know about them until I was about thirteen or so. Well, by the time we were fifteen, Ava was working part-time for the company on the weekends, and she’d impressed Dad and he wanted to show her off. Well, he couldn’t take just her. Everyone knew we were triplets and Mom never let him get away with spending time with one of us more than the others. So he invited us all.”
Evan simply couldn’t picture Rudy at a big fancy New York party. The man he knew wore blue jeans and T-shirts with a flannel shirt over the top in the cold months, and work boots. He loved cheeseburgers and onion rings and drove an old Cadillac that ran about three-fourths of the time.
“Well, I didn’t want to go in the first place,” Cori said. “And then he gave Mom a dress code and all of these ‘be sure the girls know’ things and I was just done. He wanted us there to make him look good and didn’t trust us to do that being ourselves.” She was frowning now and had her arms crossed. “I went along because Ava really wanted to go and Brynn, of course, was just going with the flow. I sucked it up and put on the stupid dress and showed up. Dad introduced us to everyone and then forgot about us. That’s when I decided to be sure that he never wanted me at one of his parties again.”
Evan felt his brows rise. “Oh, boy. What did you do?”
“That year? I got into the liquor. Got puking drunk and sang karaoke.”
“Your dad had karaoke at his big New York party?”
She actually smiled at that. “Nope.”
“Ah.” Evan grinned too. “So no more invites?”
“Oh, no, that would have been too easy. The next year I had to step up my game. I got caught making out in his office with one of his biggest client’s sons.” She frowned. “I had no idea that he was thirty and engaged. And he had no idea I was only sixteen.”
Evan actually choked. “Holy shit, Cori.”
“I know. But we really were just kissing and he got about halfway to second base. And I’d hit on him. And I’d dragged him into the office, so consent wasn’t an issue. And no way was Dad going to make a big deal about it. Nothing really came of it. Well, except for a broken engagement.”
Evan couldn’t stop staring at her.
She shook her head. “I know. But they got back together. And that one worked, because the next year, Ava asked me not to go to the party.”
There was a flash of emotion in her eyes, and Evan could have sworn it looked like regret. “That’s what you wanted right?”
She shrugged. “Yeah. I thought so. But, stupidly, hearing that they didn’t think I should go hurt a little.” She gave a light, humorless laugh. “Maybe it was hearing it from Ava that stung. I wouldn’t have cared if Dad had said it. That’s what I wanted, I guess. His attention. An emotion from him, even if it was disappointment. That’s what Karen says anyway. That I wanted attention from him that was about me, not about him. I wanted approval, but I wanted approval based on something I did, not on something he wanted me to do. And it seemed that whenever I didn’t do things his way, he just ignored me. Any emotion would have been better than that.”
Evan took a breath. He couldn’t hug her. That wouldn’t be appropriate. Would it? It seemed like a bad idea, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. He wasn’t actually dating her sister.
But in the next second, he knew the reason. Because if he hugged her, it would start a domino effect of feelings and actions and reactions that could definitely screw with their plans. Plans like dating Ava. And Cori not getting involved with anyone.
Yep, he was totally fucked.
“Who’s Karen?” he finally asked.
She gave him a small smile. “My shrink.”
“Ah.” Yep, that all sounded like shrink talk. As if he would know. He didn’t know any shrinks. Not that people in Bliss didn’t need psychological help. They just had to drive about thirty minutes to get it. “No more birthday parties then?”
“I didn’t go that year,” she said. “But then, surprisingly, the next year, when we were eighteen, he invited us again and he personally asked me to come.”
“That was…nice.” Evan hoped it was nice. He had no idea at this point. This man sounded nothing like the one he knew. The one who had, without question, loved his daughters. And regretted a lot of his decisions regarding those daughters.
“It was. I was actually, stupidly, touched by it. Decided that if he was going to trust me again, I’d do better. No shenanigans.” A sheepish look crossed her face.
“What happened?” Somehow he knew something had happened.
She sighed. “Okay, once, when I was ten, Dad and I were together for the afternoon. It was rare that any of us had one-on-one time with him. I mean, I guess that’s normal whe
n you have three kids and especially when those kids are triplets. Plus, I don’t think he really ever knew what to do with us, so it was easier when we were all together because we kept each other company and entertained one another.”
Evan nodded. He was completely enthralled here.
“Anyway, it was just the two of us because Ava and Brynn had been selected for this Quiz Bowl thing at school and were doing that. I, of course, wasn’t so I was free.” She flashed a smile that was part amused and part chagrined. “We were walking along and almost got knocked over by this huge St. Bernard. And my dad actually laughed, squatted down by this dog, let it lick his face, petted it, got hair all over his suit and…I about died. I had never seen him like that.”
And that was the Rudy Evan knew. For some reason, it felt good to know that there had at least been hints of that man even back then. That she’d seen at least a tiny bit of it. He smiled. “He liked dogs.”
“He did. But I never knew that. He said that he’d always wanted a dog. He’d grown up in a penthouse in Manhattan, so obviously he couldn’t have a dog, but that had always been something he’d wished for.” Cori had a look of faint amazement on her face even now, remembering.
Evan felt himself smiling. And being grateful that Rudy and Cori had had that moment together.
“Anyway,” she went on, “when he invited me back to his birthday party, I remembered that. And had the sudden desire to do something special for him and to show him I remembered that afternoon.”
Evan shook his head. “What did you do?”
“I got him a puppy.”
Evan let that sink in. Then laughed. “Oh my God.”
She nodded, a mischievous smile teasing her lips. “And I brought it to the party.”
Evan groaned. “Don’t tell me it was a St. Bernard.”
Her smile grew. She nodded. “Of course it was.”
“You got your dad a St. Bernard puppy and brought it to his fancy birthday party?”
“I did. But it was with every good intention,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t trying to cause trouble. I really wanted to give him a meaningful gift that he’d never expect and that he’d never get for himself.”
“Did he even have room for a huge dog in his home?” Evan asked.
“Oh sure. He had the entire upper floor of his building. More square footage than most homes. And he could have afforded to hire someone to take care of it, walk it and stuff.”
Evan nodded. “I guess. Was he touched by it?” He almost hated asking, somehow knowing the answer.
“Well, he was surprised by it. But he didn’t really have a chance to let the…gesture…sink in,” she said. She winced slightly, but she was also clearly fighting a smile.
“What happened?”
“The dog was very excited about the party,” she said, her lips twitching. “He went barreling in, knocked over some lady on really high heels, stopped and peed in the middle of the dance floor, and then headed straight for the buffet table.” She paused, clearly remembering the scene. “There was this horrendous crash, the total silence, then the sound of my father bellowing ‘Corrine Michelle Carmichael!’ louder than I’d ever heard him yell.”
Evan grimaced. He couldn’t imagine Rudy yelling. He really couldn’t. He could, however, imagine Rudy loving a St. Bernard puppy. “And then?”
“He grabbed the dog by the collar, me by the arm, marched us both to the elevator, took us down to the car, shoved us inside, and told his driver to take us straight to the Humane Society and then home.”
“Oh. Wow.” Shit.
“Well, we didn’t go to the Humane Society,” she said. “I took the dog back to where I got it and then went home. And didn’t speak to my father for six months. Which was fine, because he wasn’t talking to me either.”
“Damn, Cori.”
“I know.” She sighed. “But you see what I mean? I have this way of making things…too much. I go overboard. I get an idea and then it just keeps growing. I could have gotten him a watch. Or a tie. But no, I had to get him a puppy.”
Evan paused, not sure he should say what he was about to. Then he went ahead. Because he wasn’t huge on thinking through consequences either. “I don’t think you could have.”
Her head came up. “What?”
“I don’t think you could have just gotten him a watch. That didn’t even occur to you, did it?”
She didn’t react right away. But finally she shook her head slowly. “Not until afterward.”
He nodded. “Exactly. You can’t just make pecan pie. I mean, you can, of course. But why, when you can make chocolate toffee pecan pie? When you can make it more and better?”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Damn,” she said softly. “I really want to make you that pie.”
And he really wanted her to. And “that pie” was suddenly symbolic of a lot more.
“I guarantee that he never forgot that birthday party. Because of you. Was he embarrassed at the moment? Maybe. Irritated? Maybe. But I promise you that the other parties he had all blurred together, but he always remembered the parties you were at.”
She laughed. “Well, there’s that.”
“And I’ll bet the parties after the ones you went to seemed boring and quiet.”
Her grin softened into a smile and she gave him a look that stirred him. Physically. For sure. But it was more than the braless thing going on, and he felt the stirring somewhere else. Somewhere deeper.
“Thanks, Evan.” Her voice was soft and husky and that stirring intensified. Everywhere.
“My pleasure.”
“Oh, hi, Evan.”
He jerked his attention away from Cori and focused on the woman who had just come into the room. The woman who was supposed to be his girlfriend. “Hi, Ava.”
It was stupid to feel guilty, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. Maybe he shouldn’t have been imagining Cori spread out on the kitchen countertop with chocolate pie spread all over those teasing nipples. But he hadn't really been doing anything wrong. He wasn’t cheating on Ava. And he hadn’t actually licked one inch of Cori Carmichael.
Yet.
He made himself concentrate on Ava instead. “How was the conference call?”
“Fine.” She opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. She opened it and took a drink. “Just so you know, Jack Mitchell is making everything twice as hard as it needs to be.”
Jack Mitchell was the acting CEO of Carmichael Enterprises while Ava was in Bliss. Evan shrugged. “Sorry.”
“You’re not.”
“There’s nothing I can do, Ava. The trust is clear. I’m just the messenger.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I know. It’s ridiculous, but I know.”
“Which reminds me,” Evan said, determined to fulfill his part of this deal. Even if it killed him. “We need to go out to dinner tomorrow night.”
Ava took another drink, just watching him. “You and me?”
“Yep.”
“Something romantic, I assume?”
“Probably. Mostly just something public, but yeah, probably more than a beer and a game of pool.” Though seeing Ava shooting pool might be interesting.
“What do you have in mind?”
“There’s a nice place over in Morris,” he said, naming the little town about fifteen minutes from Bliss. “They do steak and pasta and some seafood.”
Ava sighed, but nodded. “Okay.”
He couldn’t help but grin. “Your enthusiasm is overwhelming.”
Ava gave him a little smile. “Sorry. I really am. It’s nothing personal.”
Evan nodded and couldn’t resist glancing at Cori. Yeah, it was nothing personal. Because there was nothing between him and Ava. But personal felt like it described him and Cori well. Too well. “I get it,” he told Ava. “But we need to be seen in public together. And,” he added, thinking about the other reason they were “dating”, the main reason, “you need to get away from work. W
e’ll go to dinner and then maybe do something fun after.”
“Something like what?”
He regarded the straight-laced triplet. He didn’t have to know her well to know a few things about her. “Just leave it to me.”
Predictably, her eyebrow arched. “Oh?”
Yeah, Ava Carmichael didn’t let other people take the reins very often. Or ever. And he was pretty sure she didn’t like surprises. Again, he couldn’t help but glance at Cori. Cori loved surprises. Somehow he just knew.
He looked at Ava again and nodded. “Yep. I’ll surprise you with something fun.”
She didn’t look any more enthusiastic now. “Fine.”
Yeah, a reluctant “fine” with a touch of skepticism was exactly what a guy wanted when asking a woman out. But he still smiled. “Fine.”
“Okay, I’m going to head to bed,” Ava said. “Text me to let me know the time and details for tomorrow?” she asked.
Evan lifted a shoulder. “I’ll pick you up here at six. Wear a dress. But nothing too fancy. And I wouldn’t go too high on the heels.”
Ava again looked less than thrilled, but she nodded. “Dress. No heels. Six o’clock. Got it.”
And just because he knew it would be funny he said, “Be sure to put some vanilla on.”
She frowned. “Vanilla? On?”
“Vanilla extract. It’s a great bug repellent without the chemicals.”
That was true.
“I’m going to need bug repellent?” Ava asked.
He’d been right, that was funny. “Don’t worry. I’ll be happy to check you for ticks after.”
He heard a little choking sound from Cori. But Ava just stared at him. “I don’t know what that means.”
Checking someone for ticks meant looking them over very carefully, head to toe, for any of the little buggers that liked to hide where it was hard to find them. In personal places. But even though ticks were a possibility when you spent time outside in the grass in the country, getting checked for ticks was actually code for getting a girl naked.
“I’ll explain everything. Tomorrow,” he said with a little wink.
Diamonds and Dirt Roads Page 16